- Silicon Wadi
Silicon Wadi [ [http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/090e5dd2-e88e-11db-b2c3-000b5df10621.html?nclick_check=1 Financial Times: Business as usual] ] ( _he. עמק הסיליקון, "Emek HaSilikon", lit: "Silicon Valley") is an area with a high concentration of
high-tech industries in the coastal plain inIsrael , similar toSilicon Valley inCalifornia , in theUnited States . Silicon Wadi is considered second in importance only to its Californian counterpart.cite journal| url=http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10881264 | title=Land of milk and start-ups | work=The Economist | date=2008-03-19 | accessdate=2008-03-22] The area covers much of the country, although especially high concentrations of hi-tech industry can be found in the area aroundTel Aviv including small clusters around the cities ofRa'anana ,Herzliya , Caesarea,Haifa , the academic city ofRehovot and its neighbourRishon Le Zion . More recently, clusters have been established aroundJerusalem , with its two new science parks atMalha and Har Hotzvim, as well as towns such asYokneam Illit in the North of the country and Israel's first "private city", Airport City, nearTel Aviv .History
Early history
Israeli hi-tech firms originally began to form in the 1960s. In 1961
ECI Telecom was founded, followed in 1962 byTadiran andElron Electronics regarded by many to be the "Fairchild of Israel." The number internationally successful firms grew slowly, with only one or two new successful firms each year until the early 1990s. Motorola was the first US corporation to set up an R&D unit in Israel, in 1964. The center initially developed wireless products including remote irrigation systems and later developed leading chips such as the 68030. Following the 1967 French arms embargo, Israel was forced to develop a domestic military industry, focussing on developing a technological edge over its neighbors. Some of these military firms started to seek and develop civilian applications of military technology. In the 1970s more commercial innovations began, many of which were based on military R&D, including,Scitex digital printing systems which were based on fast rotation drums from fast-rotation electronic warfare systems.World software market takes off
Slowly, the international computing industry shifted the emphasis from hardware (in which Israel had no comparative advantage) to software products (in which human capital plays a larger role). The country became one of the first nations to compete in global software markets. By the 1980s a diverse set of software firms had developed. Each found niches which were not dominated by US firms and between 1984 and 1991 "pure" software exports increased from $5 million to $110 million. Many of the important ideas here were developed by graduates of MMRM, the Israeli computer corps, established by the
IDF in the 1960s.Hi-tech firms continued to struggle throughout this period with marketing and many products, such as a mini-computer developed in the 1970s by
Elbit , who were unable to successfully commercialise the product.Takeoff in the 1990s
The 1990s saw the real takeoff of hi-tech industries in Israel, with international media attention increasing awareness of innovation in the country. Growth increased, whilst new immigrants from the
Soviet Union increased the available hi-tech workforce. Peace agreements including the 1993Oslo Peace Accord increased the investment environment and Silicon Wadi began to develop into a noticeable hi-tech cluster.ilicon Wadi today
For more than 40 years local demand fueled Israeli industrial expansion, as the country's population grew rapidly and the standard of living rose. More recently, world demand for Israeli advanced technologies, software, electronics, and other sophisticated equipment has stimulated industrial growth. Israel's high status in new technologies is the result of its emphasis on
higher education and research and development. The government also assists industrial growth by providing low-rate loans from its development budget. The main limitations experienced by industry are the scarcity of domestic raw materials and sources of energy and the restricted size of the local market. One certain advantage is that many Israeli university graduates are likely to become IT entrepreneurs or join startups, about twice as much as US university graduates, who are also attracted to traditional corporate executive positions, according toCharles Holloway , co-director of theCenter for Entrepreneurial Studies and a professor at theStanford Graduate School of Business ofStanford University [ [http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/13769/edition_id/266/format/html/displaystory.html Jewish News Weekly] ] .ICQ , for instance, is one of the world's most famous Israeli software products, developed by 4 young entrepreneurs [ [http://jobcircle.com/career/articles/x/njtc/2934.xml New Jersey Technology Council] ] . IBM has its IBM Content Discovery Engineering Team in Jerusalem [ [http://www.haifa.il.ibm.com/jerusalem_facility.html IBM Research | IBM Haifa Labs] ]Location
Due to the small size of Israel, the concentration of hi-tech firms across much of the country is enough for it to be recognised as one large cluster. Most activity is located in the densely populated areas of metropolitan Tel Aviv, Haifa, andJerusalem although some secondary with additional activity include the corridor to Beer Sheba, including Kiryat Gat, and the Western Galilee. In all, this is an area no larger than 6000 square kilometers, half of the extended Silicon Valley’s geographical coverage. [http://www.mbs.edu/home/defontenay/IsraelSiliconWadiJune2002.pdf Israel’s Silicon Wadi: The forces behind cluster formation] - By Catherine de Fontenay and Erran Carmel, June 2002]
Economy
Many international technology companies have
research and development facilities in this region including the likes ofIntel ,IBM [ [http://www.haifa.il.ibm.com/jerusalem_facility.html IBM Research | IBM Haifa Labs] ] ,Google ,Hewlett-Packard ,Philips ,Cisco Systems ,Oracle Corporation , SAP,BMC Software ,Microsoft ,Motorola andComputer Associates . Many Israeli high-tech companies are based in the region, includingZoran Corporation ,CEVA Inc ,Aladdin Knowledge Systems ,NICE Systems ,Horizon Semiconductors ,RAD Data Communications ,Radware ,Tadiran Telecom , Radvision, Check Point Software Technologies,Amdocs , Babylon Ltd.,Elbit ,Israel Aircraft Industries and the solar thermal equipment designer and manufacturerSolel , with most of them being listed on theNASDAQ , which even has an Israel Index. Because of this, Israel is often referred to as the "Silicon Wadi" and is known to be second only toSilicon Valley in the level of its innovation and ingenuity. In fact,Newsweek Magazine recently namedTel Aviv as one of the world's top ten "Hot High-Tech Cities" [ [http://www.israelemb.org/chicago/newsleter.htm Consulate General of Israel in Chicago - Israel's Economic and Business Climate. Letter from the Minister of Industry and Trade] ] . Intel developed its newdual-core Core Duo processor at its Israel Development Center located at the "Merkaz Ta'asiya ve'Meida" (Scientific Industries Center) in the city ofHaifa [ [http://www.isrealli.org/israel-saves-intel Israel Saves Intel] ] . In2006 , more than 3,000 start-ups were created in Israel, a number that is only second to the US [ [http://www.ft.com/cms/s/090e5dd2-e88e-11db-b2c3-000b5df10621.html Financial Times: Business as usual] ] .Importance
The importance of Silicon Wadi was first recognised internationally by Wired magazine, who in 2000, ranked locations by the strength of cluster effects, giving the Israeli high-tech cluster the same rank as Boston, Helsinki, London, and Kista in Sweden, second only to the Silicon Valley. [ [http://www.mbs.edu/home/defontenay/IsraelSiliconWadiJune2002.pdf Israel’s Silicon Wadi: The forces behind cluster formation] - By Catherine de Fontenay and Erran Carmel, June 2002] In 2007, the Economist considered Silicon Wadi to be second in importance only to its Californian counterpart.
Entrepreneurship
A startup that became a major powerhouse in the OpenSource era,
Zend Technologies , is best known for its foundersAndi Gutmans andZeev Suraski , bothTechnion graduates and who, along with other Israeli graduates of the Technion and the Danish-GreenlandicRasmus Lerdorf , have createdPHP . Gutmans and Suraski are both Israelis and developed PHP3 and the core of PHP4; they founded Zend inRamat Gan , Israel. Another entrepreneurial case is the RAD Group, whose member companies includeRAD Data Communications and Radvision, which were founded byZohar Zisapel and his brother Yehuda. Zohar is often called the "Bill Gates ofIsrael ". [ [http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2005/08/01/8269672/index.htm CNN Money article] ] [ [http://www.innovationspublishing.com/georgia/loadarticle.asp?id=123 Innovations Publishing article] ]ee also
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Science and technology in Israel References
External links
* [http://www.mbs.edu/home/defontenay/IsraelSiliconWadiJune2002.pdf Israel’s Silicon Wadi: The forces behind cluster formation] - By Catherine de Fontenay and Erran Carmel, June 2002
* [http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/2000_2009/2002/5/High-Tech%20Opportunities%20in%20Israel Hi-Tech Opportunities in Israel] - Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, May 2002
* [http://www.abs.aston.ac.uk/newweb/research/publications/docs/RP0505.pdf Wireless Valley, Silicon Wadi and Digital Island – Helsinki, Tel Aviv and Dublin and the ICT global production network ability tests: The role of values and test taking attitudes] - By Stephen Roper and Seamus Grimes, March 2005
* [http://www.lineaedp.it/01NET/HP/0,1254,3_ART_23356,00.html?lw=10005;CHL Alta Tecnologia nella Silicon Wadi Andrea Lawendel, LineaEDP (in italian)]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1999/05/99/israel_elections/338159.stm Israel's new economic challenge. Dominic Casciani, BBC News]
* [http://www.american.edu/initeb/as5415a/Israel_ICT/itGeo.html American University: Israel: ICT Geographics]
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